Factual Accuracy in Jazz Interviews

from Jazz Notes 9/1 1997

In a recent issue of the British magazine Rubberneck
(about improvised music and contemporary literature) I read the following
editorial statement: "If you find mistakes in this magazine, please
remember that they are there for a purpose. We try to publish something for
everyone, and some people are always looking for mistakes."

As a jazz trivia fanatic I plead guilty on the last count,
and my wishes were promptly satisfied by the latest issue of Hennessy
Jazz Notes (Winter 1996). In the "Gimme
Five. . . ." section, editor Michael Bourne asks Benny
Golson which five records he would take along to the proverbial desert
island. For Golson, one album would do: Blue 'n' Boogie and
Walkin' by Miles Davis, with Thelonious Monk playing piano. It was a
10-inch LP, one track each side. "That was epochal for me. I told my
wife to play that at my funeral."

In that case, the mourners will wait in vain for a Monk solo. On
the Prestige LP182 - Walkin' and Blue 'n' Boogie by
the Miles Davis sextet, recorded April 29, 1954 - it's Horace Silver
playing the piano, not Thelonious Monk.

It's a problem as old as the craft of jazz interviewing:
what to do when a musician is wrong about the facts? From reading Michael
Bourne's work, I know him as a knowledgeable jazz journalist. So it's hard
for me to believe that he never realized, during or after the interview,
that Golson must have confused Walkin' and Blue 'n' Boogie with
the Bags Groove session (Miles, Monk & Milt) that was recorded for
Prestige eight months later. Bourne probably decided to let the
authenticity of his Golson quote stand. As a Dutch jazz journalist who has
done, over the years, interviews with such historical figures as Ben
Webster, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus and
Sun Ra, I still adhere to the puritanical school: never knowingly publish
factual inaccuracies. Otherwise, you run the risk that they will go on to
lead a life of their own. The jazz literature of the past century contains
too much misinformation already.

Many jazz musicians simply make stuff up when interviewed by jazz journalists.The icons especially have no respect for these people.They equate them with the same people who bother them at gigs during set breaks.Most journalists refer to famous musicians using first names...Miles,Dizzy etc,as if they truly know these people.They are outsiders looking in;and apparently the only people who don't see this is them.People would probably ignore them except for the fact that they occassionally do real damage.